We had an amazing day on the Pacific Ocean! We spotted Common dolphins everywhere we went and spotted a couple of northbound Grays on the morning tour!
To start the day off, we cruised out toward the SW and once we got to the drop-off we followed the contour to the south. We hung out with a massive pod of ~300 Short-beaked Common dolphins! While we can spot them anywhere, they were hanging out closer to shore than we normally find them. They were traveling to the SE at a leisurely pace. We continued out toward deeper water and found more dolphins scattered in all directions! This time it was a huge pod of ~500 Long-beaked Common dolphins! Tons of cow/calf pairs were seen in every pod and in big numbers! We got to the 9-mile bank and hung out with two Northbound Grays whales! They were traveling very slowly and were a bit shy! We did manage to see one of the whales tails when it went down for its sounding dive! We waved goodbye and enjoyed the smooth ride home! We spotted birds, Velella velella’s and California sea lions on the way!
On our afternoon trip, right off the bat, we spotted a trio of Inshore bottlenose dolphins that were headed into the bay! We continued out and pointed our nose to the NW. We noticed some big splashes to the west and caught up with a huge pod of ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphin! They were so playful and we could see the pod a full mile around us! The visibility was so clear it looked as if the pod never ended! We kept cruising to the west and caught up with a mixed pod of Short-beaked AND Long-beaked Common dolphins! It’s not common to see both species of Commons hanging out together! We began our journey home when we sighted another huge pod coming from the south headed to the north! They overtook our boat and surrounded us! With this pod we hit the 1000+ dolphin mark! Not quite one big mega pod but there were over thousand dolphins seen on the trip!
Just 8 miles from shore, the feeding frenzy continues! We cruised for miles with a pods of ~400 long beaked common dolphins! They eventually lead us to a single fin whale, but it showed us how it got its nick name – the greyhound of the sea. We saw it breath twice, the next time it popped up it was nearly a mile away! The atmosphere was so clear that we could see San Clemente Island which is an astonishing 60 miles away. As our great star lowered to the horizon – it set just behind the island and even gave us a green flash!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Alison
